Defender leads sales rebound as microchip crisis starts to abate

LAND ROVER HAS REPORTED an increase in sales for the final quarter of the 2023 financial year, and for the year as a whole. The news comes as industry-wide supply constraints start to ease, with the global shortage of microchips in particular showing a much-needed improvement.

In total, Land Rover sold 87,455 vehicles in Q4 – an improvement of 35.7 over the same quarter in 2022. The biggest volume came from the Defender, which accounted for a little more than 25 of total sales, however the big climber was the Range Rover – which, having slowed during the last phase of L405 production, recorded a 201.6 increase following the launch of the new model. Interestingly, sales of both the Velar and Range Rover Sport dropped sharply over the course of the year as a percentage of total volume.

The problem child for Land Rover is clearly now the Discovery. Once the darling of the company’s dealerships, over the course of the financial year just ended it accounted for only just a touch more than 4 of total output. That figure is almost exactly the same for the final quarter, too, as traditional Disco buyers migrate en masse to the Defender instead.

With Land Rover’s Nitra factory in Slovakia continuing to work three shifts, Land Rover continues to eat into its order book. By the end of Q4, around 200,000 customer were waiting for their vehicles to be built and delivered 76 of them have put down deposits on on either a Defender, Range Rover or Range Rover Sport.

Prototype EV axle for Series and Defender takes shape at Design and Development Engineering

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER-

ING is currently working on an axle for use when converting Defenders and Series trucks o e e i d i e e om an s o o es use on-axle motors which it says hang only half an inch lower than the diff and add just ea o e e i e s uns un ei n situ on a vehicle, the motor will be protected by a heavy-duty steel guard. Both front and rear axles will be offered, allowing vehicles to be run in 2wd and 4wd modes, with a geared reduction box allowing the vehicle to operate at o s eeds o find ou mo e oo u esi n

Engineering on Facebook